Thoughts on the separate Roman factions..

[Nerouin]

I started as the Julii and got wrecked! The north is just too poor.

I then went onto the Scipii, and am kicking ass. It's great- many greek and carthaginian cities in reach, all very rich!!

[Quietus]

I play Julii too (Expert/Expert at that )

The real problem is the population, not really the money. Right now it is 261 and I have about 11030 denari and I'm continously building on all provinces. I'm about to have my 7th settlement (including the initial 2). It takes time to raise population to reach tech requirements. Right now I'm only a couple of turns to Tech Level 3.

The Roman campaign is actually looking pretty sweet. I might do another one after this.

One other thing is the Senate missions.I didn't do one of the Senate mission down south because I wanted to get rid of the Gauls first. The Senate yelled at me when I "failed" (Senate= Juliii= )

[Jeanne d'arc]

Can someone sum all the strengths and weaknesses of all 3 roman factions?
Is it possible to attack another roman family if you are roman also?

[Dorkus]

brutii seem the best to me.

velite gladiators come in the early game (only 3rd city level required), and make up for the romans severe lack of offensive capabilities (with no good cav).

the temple of mars is also really nice (boost to unit valor).

the other great thing about brutii is you can take the temple of zeus in two rounds. On higher difficulty settings, that's almost a necessity, if you plan on being an aggresive expander.

With a little luck (senate gave me a unit of velite gladiators, and I've had quite a few marriages), I took sparta, athens, corinth, venetia, and 4-5 other provinces in the first 10 turns or so.

Next stop: temple of artemis and hte mausoleum.

[Jacque Schtrapp]

One other thing is the Senate missions.I didn't do one of the Senate mission down south because I wanted to get rid of the Gauls first. The Senate yelled at me when I "failed" (Senate= Juliii= )

That has been my experience too. I have skipped about half their missions and still lead in both senatorial and popular support, Of course that may be because I control 3 of the wonders in the game.

I am playing as the Julii and have found denarii a little hard to come by until recently. The Brutii have been slapping the Macedonians and Greek Cities all over the strat map and now appear to be the most powerful roman faction. The Scipii have done for Carthage and don't appear to be doing much else at the moment.

[Praylak]

Every game to its own I guess. I'm playing Julii, I have 6 regions, and I can't spend enough. I have 38,000 D banked at this point. Majority of it is coming from trade. Develop those ports and roads and let the cash flow.

[Tamur]

Yes, develop your roads, ports, forums, etc and the Julii are good fun.

Re: Jeanne's question... militarily/logistically here's an answer.

All the factions start off with an even number of cities (two) and armies (four small ones).

The Julii I think start off in a slightly worse position than the other two because they're immediately to the south of the Gauls, and the second thing the Senate tells you to do is massively tick off the Gauls by sacking Massilia (Marseille). The Gauls will mass their armies and smash you if you try to occupy Marseille with anything less than a huge force. But draining your military resources to protect Marseille leaves Segestum and Arretium open to assault. It's a tricky one. The one nice thing about being Julii is that you rarely have to deal with the sea...

unlike the Scipii and Brutii. Both of these are fairly even starting positions, and pushing the Carthaginians out of Sicily isn't a horrendous chore because there are Senate navies all over the place protecting your coastline from attack in the start. But the sea is a major factor for both of these factions. The Scipii are most affected because there you have North Africa, Sicily, the Peleponnesus, and the Greek mainland all to sail back and forth between. Moving troops is a major logistical problem -- it takes three turns to get an army from Messana to Thermon, and the Senate is endlessly sending you to blockade Athens, Sparta, and Carthage. The Brutii also have to deal with this, but they can focus on the Greek mainland and northern Italy almost exclusively, making the Tyrrhenian Sea the only water they have to deal with.

As for finances, one of the best strategies I've found so far has been to go on single- or double-province raids once you get a 15 or 20 unit army... Send a spy, move in quickly once you know the disposition of forces, assault and exterminate a town, then run back to your "safe" province's walls for protection. Depending on the town, you can make 10.000 to 40.000 denarii in a single city sacking... a very nice way to pad the treasury. This is especially helpful for the Scipii/Brutii factions -- the Gallic towns don't yeild a whole lot of loot... fertile land, but not much loot, so as Julii it's best to get a force together and occupy as many as possible.

Umm, enough for now. Hope that helps a bit, I know it doesn't cover everything but what could?

[andrewt]

Julii has Temple of Ceres, which helps with the population problems. Venetia is a powerful province, population and tradewise, so make it a priority. Etruria has great trade income.

My problem with the Julii right now is family members. Only my original faction leader has died (old age) yet I'm lacking family to be governors right now. I have over 30K but am not spending much on troops yet since I'm years away from having any use for them.

[Jeanne d'arc]

Umm, enough for now. Hope that helps a bit, I know it doesn't cover everything but what could?

Thank you, it covers more then enough for me.More might spoil the game.
On question though, what faction amongst the roman ones u recommend playing? I favour playing a faction with a strong family to support me in my conquest in central europe.I want able generals for my army, not necessarely strong units as i am intending to overwhelm my enemies with numbers(ammount of men) .

Second question and probably my last, is it possible to attack fellow roman families?

[Tamur]

Sorry if I say too much just let me know and I'll stop.

... what faction amongst the roman ones u recommend playing? I favour playing a faction with a strong family...

If you want to make a run into Central Europe, then the Julii are the ones to pick. The Senate tell you to take Massilia, then Mediolanium (north of Segesta), then Patavium (unless the Brutii beat you to it). From there it's a long but possible reach over the Alps and up into the German forests.

As for family, if you're consistently winning battles then you will be able to adopt to make up for any lack of bloodline heirs. So far the Scipii have been the most favoured re: bloodline decendants, but I have a good family going with the Julii as well.

Second question and probably my last, is it possible to attack fellow roman families?

Yes, very. You can do so from the very start of the game. However, if you try it, you get a strongly worded warning from Victoria (the advisor) who tells you that may not be a wise thing to do, and you have the chance to either attack anyway or back off. I didn't actually take the opportunity to try it since I didn't want my game to end THAT quickly

[Soulflame]

Not only can you attack fellow romans, you MUST if you want to complete the game in a normal campaign with a roman faction. They will not allow you to just hold Rome, not even the Senate. War will persuade them differently of course .

From the reviews, Julii seem to be the easiest, Scipii the second, and Brutii a bit harder. All depending on enemies, lands available etc.

[Dorkus]

As for finances, one of the best strategies I've found so far has been to go on single- or double-province raids once you get a 15 or 20 unit army... Send a spy, move in quickly once you know the disposition of forces, assault and exterminate a town, then run back to your "safe" province's walls for protection. Depending on the town, you can make 10.000 to 40.000 denarii in a single city sacking... a very nice way to pad the treasury. This is especially helpful for the Scipii/Brutii factions -- the Gallic towns don't yeild a whole lot of loot... fertile land, but not much loot, so as Julii it's best to get a force together and occupy as many as possible.

Umm, enough for now. Hope that helps a bit, I know it doesn't cover everything but what could?

sacking a province really cripples it in the long run. I sacked a good trade province, and I'm really regretting it. It's taking forever to build pop up to the point that i can build a port.

So don't do this to any province you'd like to develop.

[Quietus]

Is it possible to attack another roman family if you are roman also?

I haven't tried it yet but they have much more troops than you (and pretty sure deeper coffers). Each of the 4 roman faction (SPQR, Julii, Scipii, Brutii) is allied so I'm pretty sure even if you manage to engage one the others will gang up on you.

I think it will take quite some time before you fight your other Roman brethren. Each faction except the Senate is expanding though.

[Thoros of Myr]

I sacked Venetia (Patavium) and they are still breeding like rats.

[Grifman]

A couple of points:

1) The Senate doesn't give the same missions from game to game. I never got orders to take Massila - instead I took it on the way to the next town which the Senate gave me orders to take.

2) You have to have a bankroll for the final assault. You loss massive amounts of trade income when you go for emperor while the other factions can still trade with each other.

Grifman